Peter Laban

After seeing this thread I have noticed a fair few of them in the wild. I saw at least four or five around town yesterday. They seem to do the job anyway.

The Cruinniu kicked off just now with Liam O'Connor interviewing Noel Hill about the making of the recording 'The Irish Concertina', now 35 years ago. The event was filmed for ITMA.

Last night RTE aired a flim about the the dance show I mentioned above, Mám. It concentrates on the creative process and the dance, improvising and pulling everything together. With plenty of Cormac Begley. Great stuff, I thought: The Dance While at it, you may as well watch John Kelly interview Begley :The Works presents: Cormac Begley

If you listen closely, you can even hear him, just about, shout it out to Eithne just before they go into it.

No doubt about that but hearing the recording in the first post my immediate thought was that was a variant of Father O' Flynn/ToCr and that was all my post wanted to say. The same tune, landed in Ireland and adapted there for local use/circumstances. It is sometimes hard to see the relation between variants of the same melody. For example, I have been playing the jig Kit O'Mahony's for decades. KOM was Francis O Neill 's mother and he named the tune for her in his collection. I learned the jig initially from a recording by Tommy People's but it was one of Paddy Murphy's signature tunes. Some years ago I lifted Kit O Mahony's hornpipe off the recording by Paddy Murphy, Peter O Loughlin and Paddy Canny. Never gave it much further thought until I heard Tommy Keane play the hornpipe last week. I hadn't played it for a while but it kept playing in my head for days after hearing it again. Then finally a couple of days ago I had a light bulb moment and realised the jig and the hornpipe are actually the same tune, played as different forms. And I am left wondering why I didn't spot the obvious any sooner.

Father O'Flynn/Top of Cork Road goes back to an English tune, Yorkshire Lasses that became the wellknown Irish jig. I have little doubt the OP's clip and the jig are versions of the same basic melody, that developed in different directions, suited to the use, time and place. David and I will have to agree to disagree on that one.

The Top of Cork Road or Father O'Flynn in Ireland: T: Father O'Flynn R: jig M: 6/8 L: 1/8 K: Dmaj |:A|dAF DFA|ded cBA|dcd efg|fdf ecA| dAF DFA|ded cBA|dcd efg fdd d2:| |:g|fdf fga|ecA ABc|dcd Bed|cAA A2 c| BGB Bcd|AFD DFA|dcd efg|fdd d2:|

The 11th Concertina Cruinniú will be held 10-12 February 2023 2023 Programme

I donknow how it compares to the Clare but here's one

There's that, I have sat with a good few players who switched to C onm the fly to suit the flat pipes. But listen to players like Claire Keville, Dympna O Sullivan, Mary MacNamara etc who build sets of tunes going from D to C, G and F all the time, and to great effect.

I'd be wary of generalising. Irish music tends to be in D. Yes, except when it isn't. There's a reason why players of Irish music don't use the G/D, except for a limited number of tunes, perhaps. There are players who play 'on the rows' who prefer the (two row) D /A but their number is relatively limited too. That said, I played for years with a lovely 'on the rows' player who treated her 30 button instrument as a two row and I don't think she felt limited by it at any point. In fact she was always pining for a nice two row, if we could find her one. The two row C/G has its limitations but as an introduction, a starter instrument it's a great alternative to cheap 30 button accordion reeded instruments. But for the OP it may just be a little late to pick a nice one, if they want to find one before Christmas.

I know what I would do, but different strokes and all that. And different people, different circumstances to consider, everyone should make the choice best for them. A point to consider, perhaps, if someone comes to the instrument through listening to a particular music and has fallen for a particular sound, it is worth taking that into acount and look at instruments that actually produce something approaching that sound.

I started my son, aged seven at the time, off on a vintage two row we had on loan. It had a c# at the end of one of the rows so that did fine. After a year he upgraded to a 30 button mahogany ended Lachenal that kept him going for a good while. Into his teens a nice, good quality, vintage upgrade came along. Teachers advised against the cheap accordion reeded ones available at the time and, to be honest, we were never tempted to go that way, for reasons of sound and looks. Butt YMMV. I think that was the right way to go.

I just remembered he had one track, Slieve Russell/Give us a drink of water, on a RnaG compilation of music recorded at concerts at the Willie Clancy week. I have that CD. I can shoot you that track, tomorrow, to keep you going until the Barley Grain arrives.

The county library has two copies, not in branches local to me but I am curious about the recording myself so I just put in a request to have it sent over to a local branch. I'll give you a shout when I have it.

It's fresh off the press. I knew it was in the works, I supplied some photos for it. Still unavailable at amazon UK, by the way.

Amazon returns a 'temporary out of stock' I'll go into Custy's tomorrow and see if they can get any copies in, would prefer that to buying from Amazon.

Junior wrote a parting note before he died where he said he wanted to laid to rest 'by the side of the chapel, near Cailséan an Óir' . The line caused a bit of confusion in some people as they got the impression the name referred to the church in Mullagh, where Junior was laid to rest. I remember Kitty Hayes saying after Junior's funeral, that it came as a surprise, as they had always thought the name referred to castle hill in Doonogan, close to Junior's Bonavilla/Ballymakea home. I think she had been right all along.

It's a matter of demand, over the past twenty years or so the popularity of the concertina in Ireland has been steadily increasing. Large numbers of young players in Ireland have taken up the instrument, as well as many players of Irish music worldwide, creating a high demand for good quality Anglo concertinas. There are now more players of the instrument than ever before in history and good vintage instruments are at a premium.

Concentrating Irish Traditional Music is the same as wanting to learn one song on guitar? Some of the stuff people come out with on these forums keeps amazing me. And I'll leave it at that. 😄

Junior Crehan made the hornpipe, based on an existing air. Caoineadh an tSagairt / The Priest's Lament, if I remember correctly.

In his 1936 tutor for the uilleann pipes Leo Rowsome had a page of 'A few valuable hints', basically a list of 'don'ts'. One of them was 'DON'T stamp your foot to beat time : such a habit can easily be avoided in its early stages'. While it would be rowing against the tide to object to foot tapping, I don't think it is an obligatory part of playing traditional music. It's just something most people do. Although.. I have seen a few people posting to internet forums asking how they can learn to do it

Looks can be deceiving, Sonny Murray was born in 1920. Joe Ryan in 1928, Gerdy Commane was the eldest of the three, born in 1917. I am pretty sure I saw them in Ennis just now, when I went for a coffee. In town for next week's Tradfest, I assumed.

Joe will be gone 15 years on 10 march next spring. The world is different with that generation gone. One evening I was driving my son to his karate class in Ennistymon. I had the windows of the car rolled down and we were playing the Two Gentlemen of Clare music on the CD player (my son was ten, eleven or so and learning the concertina at the time). On the backroad near Moonagh lake we met an old Renault 4. I recognised the car.. We pulled over to let each other pass. It was Joe Ryan. He had the window open as well and as he passed, he heard the tunes in the car. 'Lovely Music' I said as he drove past, he smiled and was gone again. That's a good memory.

It IS a lovely one. And it's been nagging me all morning because it sounds very familiar, it's like a few other tunes in places. Can't put my finger on it quite yet. Here are the two gentlemen, at the launch of their recording: